Ok, i love the halo games, and self respecting xbox owner does. But lately ive found some crappy problems that just ruin the fun of it all:

1) The new ranking system. Has rather made game play... predictable for me and my friends. Before the levels were "accurate", you played against the rank it said next to their name. Now however, you could see a Sergent in lone wolves, then look at his service record and realise their really a brigadier or a general! I think thats not very helpful for newcomers or people returning to halo.

2) Team parties. Now this is what REALLY fucks up my party experience on halo, if you enter with even one more person in your party, you will be put against probably a full team of people tht play together regularly AND 80% of the time they are very high ranked. Whilst being unfair to newcomers, it is incredibly annoying to find that all the power weapons have been taken and you have no real way of fighting back because they know the map too well. Which leads on to my next 2 points.

3) The multiplayer achievements. Usually im impartial to these, but with parties ruling the maps, there is no way in hell of having a fair shot at these achievments. Usually because the item needed for the achievment is taken, the enemy team veto's the map because they have the achievement, or just unable to get it going because the enemy team plays "professionally".

4) The game has changed. Now im not sure if any other players have seen this but im a returning player after about 5 - 6 months of non halo multiplayer, and iv'e realised that teams are now doing things that before they would have probably had a fit about. Take for instance our good old multiplayer friends, hording and camping. From what ive seen, most teams no longer find a battle or assualt rifle good enough to survive, they now need to molest the power weapons in a bid to survive, then when every player has gained a power weapon or 2, they will run and hide all in one building, making it impossible for any form of fun game to take place as it either turns into a suicide run to flush them out, a grenade volley ball court or people quitting. If by some miracle they are flushed out and killed, then they will make it top priority to get right back in there. I dont know whether this counts as "professional" play or just a cheap way to get EXP, so i would like to know.

5) ODST Firefight. (Dont worry, this is my last point). Now i LOVE firefight, its makes a nice change from competative versus multiplayer, but there is one issue, LAG!. This seems to be a common problem for people everywhere from what iv'e read. Recently my friends and i have been trying to do the Vidmaster: Endure achievement, and each time we were wiped out by lag. It doesnt seem to be a host problem, we have switched host, maps, some of us even moved to a different internet connection, but to no avail. We have found this really ruins the experience of an otherwise amazing game, and from what ive read, its all down to the ODST servers trying to process the payload of enemy data and send it. (We have proof as the more enemy's there are, the more it would lag, and then completely cut out on bonus rounds). The lag seems to clear up somewhat after 12 AM though. Im unsure of what the cause is, so i would like some feedback if possible.

Now i say these points because as iv'e said im a returning player, and thus i have lost most of my gameplay skills, but also have no way of regaining my skill as im placed against people far too high for my skill level, i cant get achievments or wins thanks to the "New gameplay style" and i prefer playing online with friends.

If anyone else has experienced this, or indeed has a counter arguement, please say in the poll then post details including problem number.

Once again my xbox needs to be sent off to microsoft, this time because of my hard driveI was wondering why my account was slower than others peoples and today after a catastrophe of "Cannot join party", "Cannot complete request" or not reading disks i may have finally got a solution.

After a combined time of nearly 3 hours on the phone to microsoft they finally agreed to replace my hard drive (After giving me "Support" and making the problem worse), and the crap thing is, xbox 360's nowadays have a 60GB HDD, even though mine has 20GB HDD it would make sense to give me the 60GB anyway considering the severity of the problem (Most of the time disks wont load with the HDD in) and the hassle caused.

Now im reliant on my PS2 and driving lessons to keep me sane for the next 2 weeks.... joy

So there we go folks, if your xbox is de-grading, dont suffer, make the bastards at microsoft suffer instead.

pretty well actually, have been better like my laptop is now offically a expensive paper wheight and doesnt serve a purpose so its hard to log on at home ._. other then that the only thing that has actually changed is what video games i play =/

My old skatein' buddy and my best friend's ex boyfriend is stalking me again,my real dad is playin' with my emotions again,dad's side of the family is starting to talk to me for some reason,my mom is getting married, i've lost a ton of friends that i can't get back...Fuckin' more then that, just don't feel like typing it all out...What's up?

not much, just school, party, the usual... now its more studying than even just going out for a coffee! life's gettin tough these few months, i cant wait til its all over... school i mean.. the last year before uni woo!

my very first excursion into the World of Warcraft was a gnome warlock. Still one of my favorite classes. I don't have a good one anymore because I got a different account than the trial I got, but I think I'll have to make another one. The only thing I don't like about gnomes is their starting area. I think humans have the best starting area for the Alliance. Though for Horde, the blood elf starting area is quite nice.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Gnomes and Night Elves. Humans are pretty decent. My main is a human paladin. Although, as a part time Horde player on a different server, I must proclaim my love for Blood Elves as well. I don't actually care much for the other Horde races, but they're alright I suppose.